ACT BY CONSENSUS, MNC TOLD (SPREAD, DEC 2)

THE outgoing Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Mr Paul Adu-Gyamfi, has asked the reconstituted NMC to act by consensus, bearing in mind the determination to serve the national interest, as against regime interest.
He further advised the commission to design and implement programmes which would promote high journalistic standards in the country.
Mr Adu-Gyamfi gave the advice at a press conference yesterday to express appreciation to the media and the people of Ghana for their co-operation and unflinching assistance during his tenure of office to ensure press freedom in the country.
He said over the past four years, Ghana consistently performed well on all the major international indices for the assessment of media freedom, culminating in the all-time best score last year as the African country with the freest media by Reporters Without Borders.
Mr Adu-Gyamfi said his tenure saw the publication of the Guidelines for Political Journalism and the Guidelines for Local Language Broadcasting which were developed in response to demands from media practitioners and other stakeholders.
He said the Guidelines for Local Language Broadcasting had been specially developed to guide broadcasters to harness the benefits of linguistic pluralism and diversity, with the overall belief that local language broadcasting fulfilled citizens’ dual entitlement to freedom of expression and the right to information.
The former chairman said as part of efforts to promote journalistic standards, the NMC conducted a number of training programmes for journalists and media practitioners, saying that the most extensive of the training programmes was the media and peace building training which was undertaken in all the 10 regions.
He said another significant intervention undertaken to improve the quality of media practice in Ghana was the media and national development conference which brought together all the key stakeholders in the media in Ghana to reflect on the future of the industry.
Mr Adu-Gyamfi appealed to media personnel to extend the same co-operation accorded him to the new Chairman, Mr Kabral Blay Amihere, saying that he was confident that the new chairman would continue with the transformation of the commission into a world-class institution.
For his part, Mr Amihere said the NMC had a rainbow composition and that gave it a grand opportunity to forge ahead as a non-partisan organisation with the supreme interest of serving Ghana.
He said all stakeholders, including the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG), the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and the government, had a role to play to empower a governance institution such as the NMC to impact positively on the socio-economic development of the state.
Mr Amihere stressed that the commission would discharge its duties with the highest sense of responsibility by leading by example and consensus so that the fortunes of the country would be built on a free media.